Another Visit to Twin Peaks

Anyone who was alive in the early Nineties will have heard of “Twin Peaks,” a murder mystery TV show that spun off into dark scary places and came from the minds of David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series was a cultural phenomenon for about a year, but ultimately ratings nose-dived during the second year and it went from being the show everyone talked about to the show that hardly anyone watched. All the same, like all great things, “Twin Peaks” has endured, and there is still a large cult following surrounding the show.

Aside from being a cultural phenomenon, “Twin Peaks” is probably one of the most influential TV shows of the last two decades. Any slightly weird TV show that is airing or has aired since owes at the very least respect to “Twin Peaks” for paving the way for networked weird.

In late 2001 the first season was released on DVD to rave reviews and, contrary to what a lot of people think, great sales. I still hold it as the reference disc when it comes to releases of TV shows from the time. Finally, next month, specifically April the 3rd, “Twin Peaks, The Second Season” comes home on DVD for just $54.99 RRP for all 22 episodes.

So why the gap of over five years? Many people presumed the first season hadn’t sold well, and as such the second season was never coming, but the truth is that after the success of the first season, the rights of the show got caught up between two studios, neither of which was willing to sell their stake in them.

That was sorted out last year and work on the box set began in earnest with David Lynch himself once again overseeing the remastering of the season. From the stills I’ve seen, not only does the second season look better than it did when it aired, it also looks even better than the Season One box set did.

Despite not being as highly thought of as the first season, Season Two contains the darkest and scariest material of the show and, in my opinion, some of the darkest and scariest stuff ever seen on network TV. My favourite episodes are from Season Two, and despite a bit of a lull in the middle of the run after the mystery of Laura Palmer is solved, the last four or five episodes are dynamite.

Paramount isn’t skimping on the extras either. As with the first box set, all of Bravo’s “Log Lady introductions” for the episodes are included, and each disc will have insights into the series hosted by various people involved in the show (including, amongst others, the wonderful Jennifer Lynch).